Product Lifecycle
The Product Lifecycle feature lets you define the stages your products move through as they progress from raw data to published, sellable items. By configuring lifecycle stages, you give your team a clear visual indicator of where each product stands and what still needs to happen before it is ready.Product Lifecycle is configured per project. Navigate to Settings > Product Lifecycle to set up your stages.
Why Use Lifecycle Stages?
Clear Status Visibility
See at a glance which products are drafts, under review, approved, or published. No more guessing where things stand.
Structured Process
Define a repeatable process that every product follows, ensuring nothing gets published before it is ready.
Quality Gates
Set requirements and checklists for each stage so products cannot advance until they meet your quality standards.
Workflow Integration
Lifecycle stages connect directly to Workflows, enabling guided processes that move products from one stage to the next.
Enabling the Lifecycle
Open Lifecycle settings
Navigate to Settings > Product Lifecycle. Make sure you have a project selected in the project switcher.
Toggle the feature on
Use the Enable Product Lifecycle switch at the top of the page to activate the feature for your project.
Default Stages
When you first enable the lifecycle, WISEPIM provides two default stages to get you started:| Stage | Color | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Not Reviewed | Red | Products that have not been reviewed yet |
| Reviewed | Green | Products that have been reviewed and approved |
Configuring Stages
Adding a Stage
Click the Add Stage button (either at the top of the stage list or at the bottom of the pipeline). A new stage appears with default settings that you can customize immediately.Editing a Stage
Each stage card lets you configure:- Name — A clear label for the stage (e.g., “Draft”, “Content Review”, “Ready to Publish”)
- Color — Pick from eight color options (blue, green, yellow, purple, red, orange, cyan, pink) to visually distinguish stages
- Icon — Choose from 28 icons organized into five categories:
- Content & Creation (7 icons) — icons for writing, editing, and content production
- Review & Approval (6 icons) — icons for checking, approving, and signing off
- Product Data (4 icons) — icons for data, attributes, and specifications
- Publishing & Sales (7 icons) — icons for launching, selling, and distributing
- Maintenance (3 icons) — icons for archiving, updating, and lifecycle end
- Description — An optional explanation of what happens during this stage
Reordering Stages
Stages represent a pipeline, and their order matters. Use the up and down arrow buttons that appear when you hover over a stage card to change its position in the sequence.Deleting a Stage
Hover over a stage card and click the trash icon to remove it. Products currently in that stage will need to be reassigned to a different stage.Stage Requirements
Requirements are conditions that a product must meet before it can enter or remain in a specific stage. They act as quality gates in your pipeline.Adding Requirements
Within each stage card, you will find a requirements section where you can add conditions:Select a field
Choose which product attribute to evaluate. The list includes every attribute defined in your project — both built-in fields (description, price, EAN, etc.) and any custom attributes you have created under Settings > Product Attributes. This means your quality gates can reference the exact data points that matter to your business.
Choose an operator
Select how to evaluate the field. The full set of available operators is:
| Operator | Description |
|---|---|
equals | Exact match |
not_equals | Does not match |
contains | Field includes the value |
not_contains | Field does not include the value |
starts_with | Field begins with the value |
ends_with | Field ends with the value |
greater_than | Numeric comparison |
less_than | Numeric comparison |
greater_than_or_equal | Numeric comparison |
less_than_or_equal | Numeric comparison |
in_list | Value is one of a set |
is_empty | Field has no value |
is_not_empty | Field has a value |
is_true | Boolean check |
is_false | Boolean check |
Set a value
Enter the value to compare against, if applicable. Some operators like “is empty” do not require a value.
- “Ready to Publish” stage requires: description is not empty AND quality score is greater than 75 AND main image exists
- “Content Review” stage requires: description is not empty OR short description is not empty
Stage Checklists
In addition to automated requirements, each stage can have a manual checklist of items that team members need to verify. Checklists are helpful for tasks that cannot be validated automatically, such as “Verify product photos are high resolution” or “Confirm pricing with supplier.”Enter the task description
Type a clear, actionable description of what needs to be checked (e.g., “Verify all product images are at least 1000x1000px”).
Auto-Transition
When a stage has requirements or checklist items, you can enable auto-advance. When this is turned on, products that meet all the stage’s requirements are automatically moved to the next stage in the pipeline without manual intervention. To enable auto-transition:- Make sure the stage has at least one requirement or checklist item configured
- Toggle the Auto-advance when complete switch at the bottom of the stage card
Auto-transition only appears as an option when a stage has requirements or checklist items defined. This prevents accidental auto-advancement in stages without quality gates.
Example Lifecycle Configurations
Simple Two-Stage Review
Ideal for small teams that just need a basic review process:- Not Reviewed (Red) — Products awaiting initial review
- Reviewed (Green) — Products that have been checked and approved
E-Commerce Publishing Pipeline
A more detailed pipeline for teams preparing products for online stores:- Draft (Blue) — Raw product data, just imported or created
- Content Enrichment (Yellow) — Descriptions and attributes being written or AI-enriched
- SEO Review (Orange) — Meta titles, descriptions, and keywords being optimized
- Quality Check (Purple) — Final review of all product data against quality standards
- Ready to Publish (Green) — Approved and ready for export to your webshop
- Published (Cyan) — Live on your sales channels
Multi-Market Launch
For teams managing product launches across multiple markets:- Data Collection (Blue) — Gathering product specs and images
- Content Creation (Yellow) — Writing descriptions in primary language
- Translation (Purple) — Translating to all target languages
- Legal Review (Orange) — Compliance and regulatory checks
- Approved (Green) — Ready for all markets
- Archived (Red) — Discontinued or seasonal products
Saving Your Changes
WISEPIM tracks every change you make to the lifecycle configuration — adding stages, editing names, reordering, deleting, and toggling the feature on or off. A save bar appears at the bottom of the page whenever you have unsaved modifications:- Click Save to persist your entire stage configuration in one operation
- Click Undo to revert all changes since your last save, restoring the exact state from the server
- A loading indicator shows while the save is in progress
The undo action reverts everything at once — there is no partial undo. If you want to keep some changes and discard others, save first, then make additional edits.
Using Lifecycle Stages on Products
Once you have configured your lifecycle stages, they become available directly in the Products table. Each product row displays a Lifecycle Stage selector that shows the product’s current stage with its assigned icon and color. To change a product’s stage:- Find the product in the products table
- Click the lifecycle stage indicator on the product row
- Select the new stage from the dropdown — each option displays the stage name, icon, and color so you can quickly identify the right one
- The stage updates immediately